It was Will who spotted them first. His puzzled reaction at finding his regular booth crammed with people quickly changed to a look of pure delight when he realized Bree was among the interlopers.
“Hey, darlin’,” he said, leaning down to give her a kiss. “I heard you were back in town, but this is the first chance I’ve had to welcome you home.”
Mack shot a worried glance toward Jake, then offered his own hearty greeting to Bree before shaking Mick’s hand and giving Abby a wave.
His best friends then sat back in the chairs Sally had provided, looking as if they could hardly wait for the expected fireworks to begin. Jake wanted to kill them both, even though they hadn’t had a thing to do with creating the awkward situation.
“I hear there’s a big party at your new shop tomorrow,” Will said to Bree. “My invitation must have gotten lost in the mail.”
Bree’s cheeks flushed bright pink.
“We didn’t send out invitations,” Abby quickly explained. “There’s an open invitation to everyone in town in today’s paper. You all really do have to come by and see the place. Jake brought in an amazing assortment of flowers this morning, and Bree’s already created some spectacular arrangements. We’re going to have champagne punch of the nonalcoholic variety and hors d’oeuvres, so please stop by tomorrow, anytime after four o’clock. We’ll be around until eight and there’s going to be music on the green.”
Abby then turned to Mack with a wicked glint in her eyes. “I suspect you’re going to be a regular customer.”
Mack frowned. “Why’s that?”
“You’re courting Susie, aren’t you?” Abby said.
Jake noticed that Mick’s eyes lit up with interest. “My niece? That Susie?”
Mack’s scowl deepened. “I’m not dating Susie,” he declared, though it was obvious he knew the claim had lost its credibility, at least with Jake and Will.
Will grinned. “That’s not the word on the street, pal. I think your protests are falling on deaf ears.”
Jake caught Bree studying Mack with sudden fascination.
“You and Susie, huh?” she murmured, her expression thoughtful. “You know, I can see that. I really can, though she always swore to me that hell would freeze over before she’d ever date a player like you.”
“Which is why we’re not dating,” Mack repeated for the umpteenth time.
“Same old song, next verse,” Will commented.
With all of the attention focused on Mack, Jake was finally able to relax. He actually felt the tension in Bree’s previously stiff posture ease, as well. When she moved slightly, her thigh brushed his. Jake felt the once-familiar arc of heat between them. She obviously felt it, too, because she turned to him with a startled expression. He waited, wondering if she’d shift away, leaving it to her to decide, but she stayed where she was and the wicked torment of that slight contact continued.
“Jake, you’ll be there tomorrow, won’t you?” Mick asked. “After all, these are your flowers Bree will be showcasing. It’ll be good public relations for the nursery.”
Actually he’d intended to be as far from Bree’s shop as he could possibly be, but Mick had a point. The opening was going to be a PR opportunity for him. If she was even half as talented as he suspected she was, her business would boom and, by extension, so would his.
“Actually I was thinking I’d send Connie over,” he said scrambling for a solution that would keep him away yet accomplish the positive-PR spin the event could create. As soon as the impulsive words were out of his mouth, he saw the quick flash of disappointment in Bree’s gaze and the surprise in Mick’s.
“You have something more important?” Mick inquired, his disapproval plain.
“Yeah, Jake, do you already have big plans for tomorrow?” Will, the traitor, asked, knowing perfectly well that Jake hadn’t had big plans for a Friday night in six years. Not since he’d broken up with Bree. That had ended their tradition of Friday-night dinner and movies and started his depressing round of so-called happy hours with Will and Mack.
“Work,” Jake mumbled. “I’m doing a big landscaping job and I’m going to be at it until dark.”
“Really?” Mack asked, his expression filled with skepticism. “You’ve always been pretty rigid about a six o’clock quitting time, no matter how many hours of daylight might be left.”
“Yeah, usually I am,” Jake agreed, unable to keep a defensive note out of his voice. “But I’m behind on this job and the client expects it finished by midday Saturday.”
Will gave him a devilish look. “How about Mack and I agree to pitch in and help you finish on Saturday? That way you’ll be able to put in an appearance at Bree’s open house.”
“Sounds like an excellent solution to me,” Mick said, regarding him pointedly.
Jake could have argued that Will and Mack would be more hindrance than help, but since he’d pretty much made up the whole urgency of the situation, he saw little point in digging this particular hole any deeper.
“I suppose that would work,” he said reluctantly.
Next to him, he felt Bree stiffen. “Don’t do me any favors,” she muttered, then stood up suddenly. More loudly, she said, “You all will have to excuse me. I need to get back. There’s a lot left to be done.”
“But our sandwiches aren’t here yet,” Abby protested as Mick studied her with concern.
Bree smiled, though it was clearly forced. “You can bring it back to me. I doubt I’d be able to choke it down as long as I’m worrying about everything we have left to do.”
“But I thought we were going to celebrate,” Abby said, prolonging the increasingly awkward moment. Apparently she was the only one at the table unaware of the undercurrents between Jake and Bree.
“Celebrate what?” Mack asked.
Abby started to respond, but at a sharp look from her sister, she shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. I’ll have Sally wrap up your sandwich. Dad and I will be back soon.”
Ignoring Jake completely, Bree nodded at Abby, then leaned down to give Will and Mack each a quick peck on the cheek. “See you tomorrow.” She grinned at Mack. “Bring Susie with you.”
“Oh, I imagine she’s already planning on stopping by,” Mack said.
“Which will enable him to delude himself once again that they’re not dating, even though they’ll spend the entire evening together,” Will commented dryly.
Mack gave him a sour look. “If I weren’t starving, I think I’d leave with Bree.”
“The truth’s a killer, isn’t it?” Jake taunted, happy to have his friend back on the hot seat.
Of course, if he’d been hoping that would put an end to the speculative glint in Mick O’Brien’s eyes as he gazed from Jake to Bree and back again, he was out of luck. Something told him that Bree’s father would have a whole lot of very pointed questions for him if he ever caught Jake alone.
Which was just one more reason why he needed to be far, far away from Flowers on Main tomorrow night.
When Jake made his proposal to his sister that she attend the opening of Bree’s shop in his place, Connie regarded him with a chiding look. “Absolutely not!” she said very firmly.
“Come on, sis. You can represent the nursery as well as I can. Better even. You’re great at all the mixing and mingling. Besides, you need a more active social life. Maybe you’ll meet someone.”
Jake noticed that her frown deepened with each word he spoke, but he hadn’t been able to make himself shut up.
“First,” she began, her tone like ice, “mixing and mingling on behalf of the nursery is your job, not mine. Second, I’m not interested in meeting anyone at the moment. And third, it is highly unlikely that a flower-shop opening is going to be crawling with available men, anyway, at least not the kind who’d be interested in me.” She gave him a wicked grin. “You, on the other hand…”
Jake was too desperate to get her to change her mind to waste time being offended by her taunt. “This isn’t some ordinary, small-tow
n flower shop,” he reminded her. “Bree’s an O’Brien. Everyone who is anyone in Chesapeake Shores will turn out. It’s practically mandatory.”
She beamed at him. “Which is exactly why you need to be there. Your client. Your personal appearance. Didn’t Mom teach us all about duty and obligation?”
“Isn’t it your duty and obligation to do what your boss asks you to do?” he inquired, turning the tables on her.
Clearly unintimidated, she merely shrugged. “Maybe for another boss,” she said. “You, not so much.”
He resorted to pleading. “Connie, come on, you know how awkward this is going to be.”
“What I know is that you’re terrified of spending time around Bree,” she replied. “My guess is that’s because you still have feelings for her and you’re scared that one of these days those feelings are going to overshadow whatever anger you’ve been holding on to all this time.”
Bingo, Jake thought, but didn’t admit. “Okay, if you understand all that, why won’t you help me out and go to this event? A loyal, loving sister would do that.”
Connie rolled her eyes. “No, a loyal, loving sister would tell you to kick your stupid pride to the curb, get over the past and go after the woman who makes you happy.”
“Bree hasn’t made me happy in a very long time,” he snapped.
“But she could, and we both know it.” She glanced with exaggerated deliberation at the clock on the wall. “Oops, time to go. I have to pick up Jenny at school.”
“We’ll continue this discussion when you get back,” Jake said ominously.
Connie gave him a brilliant smile. “Actually we won’t. I’m taking the rest of the day off.”
Jake stared at her. “Did I know about that?”
“Nope. I just decided. I don’t want to spend the entire afternoon having this same conversation, when the result will be the same. I’m going to take my daughter to a movie instead.”
“She’s grounded,” he reminded her.
“True, but I’m not. Besides, at her age going to a movie with her mom counts as cruel and unusual punishment. It works out well all around. See you tomorrow.”
Jake couldn’t think of a single thing to say to stop her from going or to convince her to change her mind about the party, so he clamped his mouth shut and watched her go.
Much as he dearly loved his sister, at the moment he couldn’t help wishing that he’d grown up with a houseful of brothers instead. Though, come to think of it, Will and Mack were men—his best friends, in fact—and they weren’t one bit more helpful or sympathetic than his sister. Apparently he was doomed to be surrounded by people who thought they knew what was best for him, no matter how it stuck in his craw.
12
B ree had an assortment of colorful daisies spread out in front of her on her worktable, but she was staring off into space when Mick and Abby returned from lunch. Abby set her sandwich and soda down in front of her without comment, then went back to work in the front of the shop. Mick was less discreet. He pulled up a stool and studied her with concern.
“Okay, what did I miss back there at Sally’s?” he asked. “Why’d you take off like that?”
Mick had been in and out of town when she’d been involved with Jake. Obviously he knew there’d been some kind of a relationship, but it was evident that he didn’t have any idea how serious it was or how bitter the split had been. Bree didn’t especially want to fill him in. What would be the point all these years later? She certainly didn’t want to admit to her father that she’d been pregnant. Mick would be horrified. Beyond fatherly concern, he was a very traditional man, with concrete views about how the world should operate.
Rather than admitting to anything, she said, “I had things to do here.”
“Girl, I may be a clueless male most of the time, but I can usually tell when one of my kids is upset. Does it have something to do with Jake? I thought that ended long ago.”
“It did.”
“Whose idea?”
“Mine,” she admitted. At least she was the one who’d run, even if Jake was the one who’d verbally called it quits.
He nodded slowly. “Second thoughts?”
“No,” she said at once, then sighed. “Maybe. It’s complicated.”
He smiled wearily at that. “Relationships usually are. Just look at your mom and me. We were crazy in love. We were married, had all you kids and we both thought it would be that way for the rest of our lives.”
Bree pulled herself out of her own funk and looked into his troubled gaze for the first time. “Why didn’t it stay that way if it’s what you both wanted?”
“It’s complicated,” he said with a glimmer of a smile reaching his eyes. “Most of the blame is mine. I’m sure you know that. You’re the one who has great observational skills, Bree. You see things in situations that other people don’t.”
She thought about what she remembered from that period in their lives. “You were too absorbed in work,” she said, proving his point for him. “And Mom was lonely and restless. She was overwhelmed with raising five kids on her own, for all intents and purposes.” She studied him curiously. “She told you that. I overheard the two of you arguing on the porch one night.”
“She did,” he admitted.
“Why didn’t you listen?”
“I did listen,” he said. “What I didn’t do was change, so she decided she had to take drastic action.”
Bree stared at him in shock. “Mom had an affair?”
“I’m not sure I’d call it that. She spent a couple of evenings with some man who was visiting Chesapeake Shores. It didn’t go beyond dinner and conversation, to hear her tell it, but, of course, I heard about it. I think the humiliation was worse than what she’d actually done. Needless to say, I didn’t handle it well.”
“And your lack of trust, that was the last straw for her?”
Mick nodded. “It was. I should have tried to make her change her mind. With all we had at stake, I should have tried harder to understand why she’d allowed herself to spend even a single minute with a total stranger.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Pride mostly. Stupidity. Maybe even a touch of arrogance. Even after what happened, I didn’t think she’d really leave to go chasing after a whole new life that didn’t include me.”
Bree gave him a commiserating look. “You really didn’t know Mom all that well, did you?”
He laughed, though there was little humor in the sound. “I thought I did. I counted on her love for me overriding the discontent she was feeling, even that little blip of attraction she felt for someone else. I took a calculated risk and it blew up in my face.”
“But when you knew she was really going to leave, why didn’t you do anything to stop her?”
His expression turned rueful. “A man’s pride has two sides. It can get him through some tough times. But it can also be the thing that keeps him from admitting when he’s wrong. I think for a while there I was so stunned by what she’d done, so hurt and angry, I couldn’t bring myself to go after her.” He shrugged. “And then it was too late. She’d settled into her new life, made it clear in our rare conversations about you kids that she loved New York and her job in the art gallery.”
She gave him a knowing look. “If it was too late fifteen years ago, why isn’t it too late today? You are going after her again now, aren’t you?”
“I am,” he said. “Maybe it’s because Abby forced the door between us ajar for Jess’s opening at the inn. Or maybe it’s because I’ve finally been able to admit I’d be a damn fool if I didn’t at least try to win her back. She is, after all, the only woman I’ve ever loved.”
“All those years of traveling, virtually living in other cities, and you never met anyone else?” Bree asked skeptically.
“No one who could hold a candle to your mother.”
“How’s this campaign of yours going?” she asked curiously.
He regarded her with a pensive look. “Your mother�
��s not going to make it easy, and I can hardly say that I blame her. This will be a marathon, not a sprint, but I’m not quitting till I get the outcome I’m after.”
Bree was a little surprised to hear the determination in his voice. “Even after everything that’s happened, you believe the love’s still there? You’ve truly forgiven her for taking off, leaving all of us?”
“I have.” He studied her. “You wondering if the feelings are still there between you and Jake after whatever happened to split the two of you apart?”
She nodded.
“Based on what I saw today, I’d say the answer’s yes. All my life I’ve needed to be able to read the men I’m working with, get a sense of what makes them tick. Jake Collins has all the signs of a man who’s smitten.”
Bree sighed heavily. “And not one bit happy about it, I imagine.”
Mick chuckled. “That, too.” He reached across the table and squeezed her hand then. “Trust me, most men feel that way right before they go down for the count.”
“He’s very angry with me,” Bree admitted. “With good reason.”
“Angrier than I was when I found out your mother had been seeing someone else?”
She thought about that, thought it was entirely possible that Jake’s fury had run deeper. The hurt certainly had. “Maybe so,” she admitted.
“Have you talked about whatever it was that made him so angry?”
She shook her head. “There hasn’t been a good opportunity.”
“There’s seldom a right time for a difficult conversation,” Mick told her. “Pick the time that suits you best and insist on it.”
“Maybe after the opening,” Bree said. She gestured around her work space. “I have way too much to do today and tomorrow.”
“Don’t put it off too long,” he warned. “It will only weigh on you and, trust me on this, it never gets any easier to right a wrong.”
Bree took his advice to heart. In the end, bringing up all the old wounds with Jake might not accomplish what she hoped. It might not put the past to rest. Instead, it could make the divide between them so deep that even the wary truce they’d adopted for the sake of her business would sink like a stone.
Flowers on Main Page 16
